Green Crew’s headquarters is in a location that makes water health monitoring accessible: Bloomington’s Chapter House is tucked between the northern bank of the Minnesota River and the wetlands and floodplains it flows into. The River Ecosystem Program focuses on current and future problems within this sphere, and the current projects under this category are solutions that our members have begun to implement in our community.
River Watch is a project within the RE Program that focuses on water quality. Working with the Friends of the Minnesota Valley, we lead youth on River Walks where we assess water quality at three different locations through a series of tests: pH, dissolved oxygen levels, nitrate, chlorine, and phosphate, temperature, and turbidity. This data can be used by anyone, from MPAC to the Izaak-Walton League.
The beauty of River Watch is that anyone can be part of it! There are no age restrictions to accompany us on a Walk, and with a couple sessions with us, you can sign up to lead your own.
Zebra Mussels are an invasive species found in many Minnesotan water bodies. It’s essential to detect and monitor the growth of Zebra Mussels, which can be done through the construction of a detector: 4 tiered platforms made of PVC sheeting, hung off of a dock or pole. By pulling the detector out of the water, we can identify mussel growth—and whether it’s zebra mussel growth—from between the PVC sheets!
If you’re interested in data collection or the spread of invasive species, join this project!
The Minnesota River is highly polluted, as seen visually and through the data collected from River Watch. Due to the frequency of our Walks, the data we collect—while accurate—is inefficient for our allies at the Friends of the MN Valley, or anyone else who would want to use this information!
The goal of the Continuous Water Monitoring Project is to input permanent or semipermanent sensors into the MN river that sends us a constant stream of data, the same variables we collect from River Watch. We’d place sensors up and down the river to identify these point sources of pollution and eventually eliminate or limit them.
But there are many factors to think about! Where would the sensors be most optimal? How would we ensure that they would remain intact? How would we manage the data? These are a few questions that this project creates, so if you have an idea…
Down the hill from the IWLA MN Valley Chapter house sits a small man-made pond, one that the late 60’s marketed as a rainbow trout pond. Unfortunately, this pond has not been upkept, so sediment has flowed in, even filling parts of the pond. The water that feeds the pond also contains high levels of nitrates and phosphates, causing the pond to have poor water quality and an abundance of algae. The goal of this project is to use native plants to absorb the excess nutrients in the pond, eventually restoring it to its full glory.
It’s a lot more hands-on, with our members working directly in the pond to plant native flora and wade through water, but it’s undeniably exciting.
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